I thought we had talked about the meaning of colors in another thread, but I couldn't find it. Wearing a certain color (e.g. a black suit -- seriousness; a red dress -- fun) can have meaning. However, I just read a hilarious article about the University of Iowa's football team painting the visitors' locker room pink. Apparently the coach sought to "lull his opponents into a calm and docile state before games." Ah, but instead, the opponents were livid...and saw red! Further, a law school professor there publicized that it promoted "sexism and homophobia." He got death threats...and that is very out of character for Iowans, who are famous for their politeness.

The trials and tribulations with colors. Do you have any examples?

When I was a young thing (and dinosaurs ruled the earth) I was a student of interior design and fashion at a business college. We had a class on color psychology. The lesson I remember best is that many restaurants use red in their interiors because people tend to eat faster (and get out, causing more customer turnover and thereby making more money for the restaurant).

That's interesting. Now I will have to look around at the colors of restaurants!

I'd think "red" would mean to linger around with your coffee ("stop") and "green" would be to get out fast ("go"). Oh, well, there I go being a literalist again!

Kalleh, I think it has to do with red being a "stimulating" color that makes us tend to move faster. Way back when I was taught about that, I did just what you mentioned: I began noticing restaurants' interior colors, and it surely seemed to be true that the majority used red. Whether that's still true today, I don't know. Off the top of my head, what I think is more likely true today is that restaurants tend to choose a somewhat wild and frenetic combination of intense colors, accomplishing, probably, the same stimulus.